KMT Chairperson visits China

Kuomintang Chairperson Hung Hsiu-chu begins her five-day visit to China today, first stopping in Nanjing to pay respect at the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum. Sun Yat-sen is widely considered to be the founding father of modern China as well as the founder of what became modern-day KMT. Hung is expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, in his capacity as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, in Beijing tomorrow.

China has welcome this visit as an important step towards peaceful development of cross-strait relations, again citing the “1992 Consensus” as the basis for cross-strait relations. Of particular importance to China is the one-China principle, while KMT believes the “China” of such principle refers to the Republic of China instead of the People’s Republic of China.

Many in Taiwan, including President Tsai Ing-wen’s government and her Democratic Progressive Party, are watching closely, as some fear that Hung will publicly commit Taiwan to a peace agreement with China, even as KMT lost both the presidency and parliament majority this January. Hung has previously publicly endorsed the idea of both sides belonging to one China without specifying the Republic of China, drawing controversy and ire from many within her party.